Advanced Safety Features in Newer Vehicles

Wish the car that didn't yield going onto the highway and almost hit me this afternoon had some of those features! And the guy that changed lanes without signalling just as I was about to, with my directional on and everything, who just missed sideswiping my car yesterday - he could have used a few warning signals.
 
The car that I rented not too long ago had all these features and I really didn't like them at first. I got used to most of them, but I had to adjust the collision avoidance system because it was slowing me down on the interstate and I couldn't pass anyone. That one was weird.
 
I have all these features on my 2018 Outback and really don't notice them after a while. I have never had the car break itself though it does slow itself down if I have the cruise control on and within so many feet of another car in front of me. The notification does flash red when I change lanes on interstate and too close to far in front of me. All I have to do is tap on the brakes and there are no problems.

Honestly, you just get used to all the gadgets and things. I like having the sensors. I don't text and drive but I am one to daze out and just drive or get distracted and it makes me feel better that I have another layer of protection.
 
We just bought something I never imagined we would get. A tall hatchback crossover kinda thing. But we can never do normal so it is a Hyundai Kona Ironman limited edition. It has all these things but it is very unobtrusive. I'm quite impressed!

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I rented a Hyundai for a week in March with the warning light in the mirror when a car was in the lane next to you, and it set off an alarm if you turned the turn signal on that way if there was a car there. I found it interesting. My wife and daughter.....my passengers....found the alarm annoying.
 
I turned off every thing I possibly could on my 2018. I found them distracting and obnoxious and didn't want them.

I agree. I want to fully be in charge when I'm driving. Don't want them to distract me or make me eventually even slightly falsely dependent. I also don't want one that has auto parking features - I've been parking for many years, and think I can manage to do so for (hopefully) many more.
 
As someone who does car crashes for a living, I can tell you these features are never a bad thing when used properly. They are a tool to help you, not a substitute for good driving skills (not implying you don't have them). Yes, the beeps and warnings can be annoying and they can be over sensitive. If they are, or you're in an area where the car has trouble reading road lines, etc...then maybe turn it off. The emergency braking is a wonderful thing, rear end accidents are by far the most common type. The "phantom" braking thing is amazingly overblown and hype. Has it happened? Yes. However, it's a very, very rare thing. It's far more likely to prevent an accident than cause an issue by a phantom event.

The key thing to remember is that they aren't autonomous driving. They are simply aids for the skills you should have. While the emergency braking will take over the brakes, things like the lane departure warning don't complete take over steering. You can override it if you don't agree with what it's trying to do. Some systems are better than others. No offense to Tesla owners, but I would not use their cars as a gauge.

Many here know how much of a car guy I am. I've owned probably over 100, I work with them for a living, race them for a hobby, drive 35k+ miles per year. Heck, I just bought 2 cars for my 15 year old son within the past 30 days. So I very much want to do my own driving. However, I recognize that the computers and systems can do things I never could. It's very similar to ABS. People scoffed at that idea years ago, and in fairness it did need some development. However, ABS systems can out brake even the best race car drivers in the world. Yet people still resist the "stomp and steer" braking method in snow and want to do it themselves. So technology is always slow to catch on.
 


I appreciate the blind spot indicator and the front end crash warning indicator - the better to manage my texting and driving skills. ;)
 
We just bought something I never imagined we would get. A tall hatchback crossover kinda thing. But we can never do normal so it is a Hyundai Kona Ironman limited edition. It has all these things but it is very unobtrusive. I'm quite impressed!

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Call it what it is. A wagon. I absolutely love wagons and I know you do too, so that's awesome! Hyundai/Kia make some impressive stuff nowadays.
 
If you don’t want your lane departure system freaking out, try actually using your blinker when changing lanes. You know, like you are supposed to.
 
If you don’t want your lane departure system freaking out, try actually using your blinker when changing lanes. You know, like you are supposed to.

I'm absolutely religious about using my blinker when I change lanes. That's not what we are talking about.

This issue is more about defensive swerves; I don't know of a way to set it that would eliminate the issue, but it's problematic to have the car try to steer you back into the path of an obstacle that has suddenly appeared to the side of the vehicle. (The front-collision warning system will sense things that are directly in front, but it doesn't do a good job with things that are coming at you from the side, like an opening door on a parked car.)
 
I bought a car last year with those features and I love it. I also have a backup camera and blind spot monitoring. I bought a "new" car for my DD this year and made sure that her car also had all these safety features.
 
(The front-collision warning system will sense things that are directly in front, but it doesn't do a good job with things that are coming at you from the side, like an opening door on a parked car.)

It's not supposed to. I think that's also a part of the challenge. You need to have realistic understandings of what it does and does not do.
 
It's not supposed to. I think that's also a part of the challenge. You need to have realistic understandings of what it does and does not do.

Oh, I agree ... I was replying to the poster who suggested that using a blinker would stop the car from trying to correct. In case like these, no one is normally going to use a blinker because it is a very quick response situation that is over in the space of a blink (well, it is unless you overcorrect and end up hitting something!)
 

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